The “Twat Situation” graphic that was posted here and elsewhere never aired on Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ, according to a station executive.

Steve Wexler

“It appears that someone with too much time on their hands and a sophomoric sense of humor used software to alter the pictures and distribute them,” writes Journal Broadcast Group executive vice president Steve Wexler.

His email:

As you can imagine, the purported graphic mistake during our coverage of the SWAT incident in Shorewood that you published got our attention. While we’re not perfect, we do work hard to be careful, especially during fast-breaking news situations.

In this case, it appears that the photo you mentioned and linked to, was in fact a hoax.

We went through our entire coverage of Friday’s events, frame-by-frame, and couldn’t find the alleged error. We received no calls or complaints from viewers.

We have compared the supposed “screen shot” that you publicized to an actual shot that did make it on air. As you can see, the fonts are close but not exact replicas.

I’m not claiming that we don’t sometimes make mistakes. When we do, we deserve the criticism that follows. But in this case, it appears that someone with too much time on their hands and a sophomoric sense of humor used software to alter the pictures and distribute them.

How Rob Hart figured out that something was up at the Sun-Times just before he and the paper’s other photographers were laid off:

I got a phone call from my photo editor and he wanted to know the serial numbers off of our equipment. Anyone who’s ever worked at a newspaper knows that when they call you and ask what equipment do you have, that’s your last day.

And then we got an email at 5:30, after all of our assignments had gone out for the next day, that said you have to come downtown for a meeting, which they never invite us downtown. We’ve never had the entire photo staff in one place, ever. That was the first and last time we were all in the same place. …They had an extra security guard at the door of the editorial floor. When I saw that extra security guard there, I was like, OK, this is going down.

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